Bananas and Nuts

[Pjerrot]

You’re kind of a jerk.

Your kind,…

[Anaxagoras]

Your kind,…

You feel the need to pun in a foreign language?

The pun is strong in this one.

[John_Many_Jars]

That’s how my friend met her husband. They were at a party, hanging out in the kitchen with some people when someone else repeated the old adage “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose”.

Upon hearing this, he promptly turned to her and stuck his finger in her nose, saying “You’re not my friend, so I can pick your nose.”

Married 14 years. :-P

That is HOT

[Editer]

It kind of went over the top when y’all got Spatzi fired from NPR, though.

[Jarmo]

You’ve been here for like two minutes.

Long enough to observe and describe a trend. In hindsight I should have chosen more politic expressions so as not to rile up the silverbacks.

[BobJustBob]

I initially read that as silverfish and did not understand.

[Raife]

We could maybe make the case that this could be the place to discuss banworthy behaviour even before anyone is banned, but we have no precedent-setting ruling about this under the new moderating paradigm.

This approach right here is part of your problem. That, and that you’re a fucking idiot.

[ZekeDMS]

Your kind,…

I don’t get it. Are you incorrectly correcting his grammar? Are you insisting he has a kind of some sort?

[jerri_blank]

It kind of went over the top when y’all got Spatzi fired from NPR, though.

Well, he should have known better. We had already gotten him fired from CNN for saying ugly things about Jon Stewart and others like him who run the media.

[Jarmo]

We could maybe make the case that this could be the place to discuss banworthy behaviour even before anyone is banned, but we have no precedent-setting ruling about this under the new moderating paradigm.

This approach right here is part of your problem.

Yeah, that’s a particularly painful passage to read after the fact. Obviously it is not my place to tell anyone what they can or cannot talk about here. As what I’m sure will come as a complete surprise to you, nor do I have any desire whatsoever to do so.

I merely tried to interpret the intent behind the latest edition of the forum rules. I realise now I chose my words very badly in that it appears I was smugly and in an idiotically lawyerly way being condescending and other bad stuff.

Here are some relevant parts of the rules:

• Don’t drag in your baggage from another thread.
• Bans are between me and the person whose account is closed.
• If you want to discuss bans, here is the thread to do it. … This doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want in there, but it does mean you can hold forth all you want about how the forum is run. You can gossip, kvetch, or rail, within the parameters of the normal rules.

What I was trying to say is only that as there hasn’t been an instance of moderation in this thread after the latest rule changes we don’t yet know exactly where the limits of behaviour acceptable to the moderator lie. I was merely trying to describe the current situation and not trying to prescribe anyone’s behaviour. I do realise I went about it in a way sure to rise heckles.

I find it a better approach to try to understand rules stuff like this (by e.g. discussing it here) before crossing a line and not just doing whatever and waiting for the possible fallout. Sure, bringing it up runs the risk of being misunderstood for a wannabe teacher’s pet and an insufferable little miss know-it-all.

I don’t particularly care what anybody does or doesn’t do here or anywhere else. I just find a forum where people actually know the rules a more enjoyable and smoothly functioning place to visit.

[Matt_Perkins]

You put a lot of effort into not caring…

[Jarmo]

I care about Qt3 as a fun place to participate in. I don’t care to police the behaviour of others. This is a place for communication and when I find I have failed in it I care enough to try to rectify that.

[Pjerrot]

I don’t get it. Are you incorrectly correcting his grammar? Are you insisting he has a kind of some sort?

Not your kind of a joke?

[jpinard]

It kind of went over the top when y’all got Spatzi fired from NPR, though.

Spatzi worked for NPR? And someone got him fired?

[SpoofyChop]

Spatzi worked for NPR? And someone got him fired?

I think Denny is making a joke at the expense of Juan Williams, the guy that recently actually got fired from NPR for saying that he’s afraid that people wearing “Muslim dress” on airplanes are about to start battle dancing.

[Tyjenks]

I think Denny is making a joke at the expense of Juan Williams, the guy that recently actually got fired from NPR for saying that he’s afraid that people wearing “Muslim dress” on airplanes are about to start battle dancing.

I got fired from my job at NPR for stating that I hide quietly in the house when Mormon missionaries knock on my door. Those dudes are like real life zombies with bicycle helmets made of brains.

[quatoria]

Long enough to observe and describe a trend. In hindsight I should have chosen more politic expressions so as not to rile up the silverbacks.

Ook ook ook!

[Lynch]

People weren’t banned for “fall out from that discussion,” the people that were banned were banned for dragging things from one thread into another.

You obviously didn’t understand what I was trying to say, I know exactly why people were justifiably banned. It all started in the RAGE thread and spatzi obviously thought he would be allowed to rage about things.

God forbid somebody starting some rage in a rage thread!

Then people jumped in attacking him like 12 year olds for a single line where a short adult reply would have been enough. I didn’t get the impression spatzi being a racist at all by the way.

But I don’t think the main gist of that first thread was “you shouldn’t be posting this in this thread, go post in the racist thread,” which is what thread police or “thread-sheriffs” would do.

What does that even mean? Is there a racist thread I am not aware about? What do you think was the “main gist”?

It actually amazes me that whenever “free speech” is brought up on QT3 the same 12 year olds are telling people they would give their lifes for the right of free speech and then try to self-censor the enitre platform.

[Adam_Eayrs]

So, confronted with several examples of what happens when you [Adam] drag old ballast in from other threads, this is what you do? Seriously?

Having our arguments on a forum allows us to easily recall anything anyone has ever contributed to the discussion. As long as the signal to noise ratio is low, (i.e. low information acquisition costs) this record of our claims makes it easy to deconstruct and critique each other’s reasoning, and improve our own.

Sometimes, the claims that posters advance follow a characteristic pattern, which can be better elaborated by consulting the forum record. In Spatzi’s case, that pattern is irrational spazzing, whether about Asians or Steam. Spatzi might have a legitimate claim about either: maybe Asians in Vancouver are rude (I was more disturbed by the junkies), and I know for a fact that Steam has kept broken games on its roster despite extensive documentation of their flaws in Steam’s forums (JA2 is the first example that comes to mind).

In Nezz’s case, that pattern appears to be ornate, sometimes quasi-theological apologies for intolerance in the United States. When Nezz contributes to the conversation in that vein, sometimes it can be illustrative (and even funny!) to point to other examples of that trend in Nezz’s work. That is the forum’s gift to us.

[Eilonwy]

I didn’t get the impression spatzi being a racist at all by the way.

To steal Raife’s line: That’s probably because you’re stupid.